Coaches stick to basics with 12-year-olds

Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2002

Brendan Funtekbfuntek@amarillonet.com

The Randall High School gymnasium halls were filled Saturday with out-of-town parents, siblings and coaches at the AAU 12-and-under girls' national basketball tournament. Information is tightly exchanged among coaches who always have an eye out on the game in front of them.

"Well, their point guard is out. She broke her elbow," one coach said during matchup talk with another coach.

"Really? She's one of their best players, right?"

"Yeah, they've got a good post player, but the team struggles without her (the point guard)."

A kids' game this isn't. Besides a talent level on each team that has surged to the national level, it's not uncommon to see some 12-year-olds surpass the 6-foot mark in height.

"My point guard is 4-foot-10. She weighs 69 pounds. She's gotta be one of the smallest kids here at the tournament," said Burk Parker, coach of the Virginia Red Tide. "We played a 14-year-old team the other day and she put 27 points on the board. She never quits."

Shannon Lewis is head coach of the West Virginia Thunder, who at the time was scouting an opponent as a favor for an AAU team from Virginia.

"The kids you have are more advanced than you would expect a 12-year-old to be," Lewis said. "You would be surprised how well advanced. Of course, it varies from kid to kid. You're going to have your very intellectual kids who keep up with it and then some who just play on athleticism."

Parker said, "Just like some kids will grow fast. You have kids that absorb everything you tell them that you're very proud of, then you have kids who are stars at 10 and don't get much better. It's an individual kid and sometimes parents can try to force feed it or coaches can, but the kids that absorb it and want to learn are going to get better and better."

Both coaches imply that although abilities like court awareness and knowledge of the game come with time at this age, the girls compensate with dedication.

"These girls play with a lot of heart. On this team, there are two or three of them who know the game conceptually well, there are two or three additional ones that are good basketball players that don't quit," Parker said. "Then there are two or three that have certain roles they can play."

Lewis said, "You just want them to play hard. At this age, usually it's their attitude and their hustle. As long as they're playing hard."

Parker continues to stress the basics of the game to his girls.

"Fundamentals. You still to need to teach fundamentals. Conceptually as well as playing the game," Parker said. "Boxing out, moving your feet, spacing, running hard. Just fundamental basketball stuff. You can get an average team you can be successful with if you teach them those fundamentals."

Lewis also keeps the fundamentals fresh in his athletes' minds.

"Basic stuff. You're not going to get too advanced at this level. Pick and rolls, screen downs, screen across on man and, against zones, you just want to work the ball and get a post player down on the middle. Just basic stuff," he said.

Lewis has learned that the obstacles in coaching girls this age are basic issues.

"Strength is probably the biggest thing at this age. You'll see a kid get a rebound on defense and they're not strong enough to get the ball out. You see a lot of tie-ups," Lewis said.

AAU national tournament teams come from California to Connecticut, but they still share universal problems. Parker is a high school junior varsity coach and enjoys the luxury of gym access for his Red Tide team. Most AAU coaches have loose associations with local schools.

"Most of them have to get gyms," Parker said.

"Yeah, that helps," said Lewis, a first-year freshman coach in West Virginia. "Gyms are rough to get, but we've been pretty fortunate with one school in particular. We always try to get a few of their kids on the team."

"There are certain local rules," Parker explained. "I couldn't have a certain amount of kids from my high school team, and that's really not an issue at my level."

Parker has coached at this AAU level for five years with 15 years total experience, including coaching B teams.

"The parents drive me crazy. I'll never leave because of the kids. When you go to A teams at about 13 or 14, you'll have parents that'll want their kid to go 'Well, if I'm not going to start now, I'm not going to start later. Then I can't get that college scholarship.' '' Parker said. "So the pressure mounts. I still enjoy it."

This is Lewis' 25th national tournament in his 10-year tenure, and his problems come from the regional issues when he's assembling a team.

"In my state we have to spread out," Lewis said. "West Virginia's a mountain state. You have towns an hour apart. I have kids that have to drive an hour or two just to play. That's the only way we can compete. West Virginia's not as strong as Texas or Florida by any means, so you have to spread out."

This also can play a factor in how long Lewis' teams remain in the tournament.

"Once the legs go, the shots start coming up short. You'll notice the scores will be higher at the beginning of the tournament and start going down," Lewis said. "Especially with our team, our players are so spread out that we don't get to practice much. So conditioning is up to them and that usually hurts us the farther we go in the tournament."